The Human Stain
by Lotus Butterfly
Summary: The city is a living, breathing, blooded being. To drain that very live-giving blood is the single driving force of a devil; to spread their infection. But for every illness, there is a cure. Rated T for mentions of blood and violence.


_Here I am!_

**A/N: **Whoa, I'm sorry. I said I was going to be updating more regularly and then I disappeared again. Many apologies. I had to take my final. Thankfully, I've heard back and I passed, which is a load off my mind. Now, after two years of schooling, I can finally go into the career I WANT (not that being a janitor is bad or anything...I will admit I'll miss singing into my mop...). With that all out of the way, I started seriously writing out full chapters for **Lullaby**, but I just haven't uploaded any of them yet because I'm not taking the time to edit them before I move on to the next. Once I edit, then I'll post them up, but progress is being made, I promise!

**Disclaimer: **Devil May Cry and its characters belong to Capcom.

**Warnings: This is something completely different!** This little diddy is written from the perspective of a devil. No, it isn't specified what devil specifically it is, but does it really matter? Use your imaginations. Other warnings include mentions of blood, violence, confusing metaphors, and in general, about a thousand words that together make something that doesn't make any sense. Don't worry if you're confused reading this. Even I'm not sure what's going on xD but it felt right to write it and post, so...there you have it!

**Dedications: **To my ever patient fans, new and veteran. You're awesome. Also to _**Kamelot**_, for just being an awesome band and for inspiring me with a favorite song, the title of which is shared with this oneshot! (Hooray unoriginality!)

Don't worry if you don't like this. I won't be offended. It _is_ rather strange.

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><p><strong>-The Human Stain-<strong>

Splashes of orange were beginning to leech into the cloudless sky, the faint sounds of the city echoing up into the vast open space; the honk of a car horn, the screech of tires, the shriek of a siren, all of them coalescing together to wind their way through every side street and dirty, narrow alley, carrying that ambient noise of the living, industrial being. Its body was made up of the tall-standing skyscrapers, the glass and steel that gleamed in the sun like its skin. The concrete streets were its veins, the cars that sped along those passageways like nerve endings, carrying messages and movements to where they needed to be. The people themselves that wandered like the very blood that kept the beast of a city alive and thriving. Without those people, there would be no life. The city would become a hollow skeleton.

Claws clacked together as lengthened fingers twitched with need, an eagerness to make the teeming, beating heart of the city become empty and silent. So much blood there, waiting to be chased away from the veins that wound between the high buildings. Some old, some new. So many smells carried on the wind. There were humans, old and young, male and female; all of the heartbeats seemed to synchronize. All those watching eyes, hazed red saw of the spread before it was a heart. One. Big. Heart. Sharpened teeth dribbled saliva, longing to take a bite out of that pulse that throbbed through the concrete and brick, steel and glass.

The orange bled into red. Red like the blood sensitive ears could hear pounding. Rushing. Stop. Rushing. Stop. A rhythm that was ever predictable and so very tempting.

Night was falling. The orange was gone and the red grew darker, black encroaching into the color until it was nothing but the cold, solid slate. Slowly, sparks of light began to break apart the monotony of a night sky. But red eyes were still locked onto the streets that never emptied. The veins that continued to lead the city's blood. Moving. Moving. Rushing.

As if a switch were flipped, the body forced to wait until the cover of darkness launched from the narrow space it had taken shelter in during the burning daylight hours. The heightened senses immediately drew into a single beat that was out of sync with the rest. As it drew closer the beat grew more erratic. Faster. Faster, faster, _faster._ The grays and blacks and dull oranges of the night coated streets faded into a blur, the only focus on that of a body outlined in red by the devil's vision; seeing the blood in just a single body, not the whole of the city. Start with one. Soon the others would follow.

The elongated body leapt off the slightly damp path it had been sprinting along, claws raking through the bricks that held the walls of the city's body together, leaving behind the dust of its bones. The devil drew closer, ragged breaths growing clearer. With a cry it landed upon the single red-outlined target, slamming into the ground. _Crunch_. Teeth and claws tore through clothing and warm flesh. There was the soft resistance of bone before even those gave way and then….sweet, hot blood, flowing over and out, painting the night in red. More red. The smell. The taste. The sound. Delicious.

_So it hurts to be alive. Hurts to be alive. Hurts to be alive…._

More shadows joined in the hunt. More devils chased down the beats that were out of sync. More blood. More spilled. More. _More._

A cry. That wasn't prey.

The devil looked up sharply, the stench of an invading, demonic force leaking into the sweet, succulent scent of human blood and death. There, a flash of light and then….pain. The devil screamed as white-hot bullets pierced its thickened skin. It shuddered and leapt away from its latest kill, the first instinct to flee. But…the living city. It had to lose its blood. It had to be bled dry.

Instead of instinctive retreat, it turned and flung its body forward, the claws digging into the streets, into the walls of the city's veins to propel it forward faster. All around it, the devil's kin fell under the barrage of gunfire. The searing ache of those bullets that struck it seemed to grow stronger the closer it drew to the source. So close, could smell it. The stench…familiar….powerful.

_Powerful._

There it was. The source. The single cell that fought off the infection that was dedicated to chasing out the blood until the city was no more than an industrial cadaver. So fitting that it, among all the other cells, was red, like the blood it preserved. Like the blood it spilled.

Driven, the devil sprinted right for that single force, stained teeth bared and ready to bite down. Only feet away. It forced itself to move faster. Faster, faster….a final leap, while that red back was turned.

In a single fluid move that seemed to slow time itself, with a mellow beat that slowed the panic that had only moments before been spreading through the city's heart, the Red One turned, icy eyes filling with that same blood the cell cloaked itself in. Lifting an arm, there was a flash, a sound, but so very faint.

The leap was cut short. The devil landed on all fours and looked upon the defending force that simply bared its own set of fangs in victory.

"Jackpot."

_Jackpot, jackpot, jackpot…._

Falling forward, blinking as if in surprise, the devil wondered why its body no longer moved. A gush of heat spilled from its head and poured over its face. A blackened tongue snaked out, attempting to lap up the leak, fading vision still locked onto the Red One that once more moved as if it were lightning, more devil bodies like its own falling around that fighting cell.

The movement didn't last. Within seconds all was still again. Thunder cracked in the sky…or was that the gun the red cell held within its sure grasp?

_Jackpot._

And then the devil…was dead, body melting into oblivion.

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><p><strong>So...review please? And let me know if you managed to spot Dante in this madness! xD<strong>


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